Methods and apparatus to determine a number of people in an area

ABSTRACT

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to determine the number of people at a location. An example apparatus includes a configuration changer to change a configuration setting of the base station to cause mobile devices to register with the base station, a registration manager to respond to registration requests received from the mobile devices after the configuration setting is changed by storing device identification information for the corresponding mobile devices, and a counter controller to identify a number of the mobile devices at a location of the base station based on the stored device identification information.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent arises from a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 15/831,918 (now U.S. Pat. No. ______), filed Dec.5, 2017, entitled “Methods and Apparatus to Determine a Number of Peoplein an Area,” which is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 14/874,011 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,843,836), filedOct. 2, 2015, entitled “Methods and Apparatus to Determine a Number ofPeople in an Area,” which is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisionalpatent application Ser. No. 13/829,067 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,179,185),filed Mar. 14, 2013, entitled “Methods and Apparatus to Determine aNumber of People in an Area.” U.S. Non-Provisional patent applicationSer. No. 15/831,918; U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No.14/874,011; and U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No.13/829,067 are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.Priority to U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 15/831,918;U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 14/874,011; and U.S.Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 13/829,067 is herebyclaimed.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to wireless technology, and, moreparticularly, to monitoring a number of people in an area using wirelesstechnology.

BACKGROUND

Wireless technology enables an individual to communicate with othersand/or a network using a mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone (e.g., acell phone or smartphone), personal digital assistant, a tablet computer(e.g., an iPad®), a laptop computer, etc.). A mobile device establishescommunication with a network by registering with a base station oraccess point.

For cellular communication, a base station may be an access point (e.g.,a standard mobile base station, a microcell, a picocell, a femtocell,etc.) that is accessible using cellular communication technology (e.g.,global system for mobile communication (GSM), code division multipleaccess (CDMA), etc.). For other wireless communication, such as Wi-Fi,the base station may be a wireless router, hotspot access point, etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example environment including an examplebase station disclosed herein.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a first example implementation of theexample base station of FIG. 1 including an example counter disclosedherein.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a second example implementation of theexample base station of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an example data structure of an example registration log thatmay be implemented by the example base station of FIGS. 1, 2, and/or 3.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart representation of example machine readableinstructions that may be executed to implement the example base stationand/or the example counterfeit base station of FIGS. 1, 2 and/or 3.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart representation of example machine readableinstructions that may be executed to implement an example registrationmanager of the example base station of FIGS. 1, 2, and/or 3.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the mediameter of FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart representation of example machine readableinstructions that may be executed to implement the example media meterof FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an example processing platform capable ofexecuting the example machine readable instructions of FIGS. 5 and/or 6to implement the example base station of FIGS. 1, 2, and/or 3 and/or toexecute the example machine readable instructions of FIG. 8 to implementthe example media meter of FIG. 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods and apparatus disclosed herein determine a number ofpeople in an area based on a number of mobile devices communicating orattempting to communicate with a base station within or near the area.Example methods include logging, via a processor, identificationinformation for one or more mobile device(s) corresponding to one ormore received request(s) to register with a base station and determininga number of mobile devices located in an area corresponding to the basestation during a particular period of time based on the tracked periodsof time. In some examples, the identities of the mobile devices arelogged and timestsamped. Such data may be used as people meter data tofacilitate audience measurement by aligning the people meter data withmedia exposure data for an information presentation device in thevicinity of the base station. This approach works particularly well whenthe base station is geographically limited. For example, this approachworks well when the base station is a femtocell.

In some examples disclosed herein, a base station is an operable oractive base station that provides communication services to a subscribernetwork. In other examples, a base station is a counterfeit base stationthat “acts” like an active base station by broadcasting signals withinan appropriate frequency range, such as a cellular frequency rangelicensed to one or more mobile service providers (e.g., Verizon, AT&T,T-Mobile, Sprint, etc.), but does not actually provide communicationservices. In some such examples, the base station or counterfeit basestation monitors registration requests from the mobile devices todetermine the number of mobile devices in a location. In such examples,the mobile devices automatically attempt to register with the basestation or counterfeit base station in order to gain access to anetwork.

By logging attempts to register with a base station or counterfeit basestation, example methods and apparatus disclosed herein are able todetermine a number of people at a location near the base station orcounterfeit base station during corresponding period(s) of time. In someexamples, an identifier of the mobile device is logged in connectionwith the request to register, and such requests to register aretimestamped. By detecting repeated requests to register, examplesdisclosed herein can record a duration of time a mobile device is in thevicinity of the base station.

As noted above, example methods and apparatus disclosed herein may beimplemented for use with an audience measurement system. In audiencemeasurement systems, detection of person identifying informationidentifying persons at a location where a media presentation isoccurring is used to determine ratings and/or other audiencemeasurements. The person identification data can be mapped, aligned,and/or correlated with media identifying information corresponding todetected media at the same location to provide exposure data for thatmedia (e.g., to determine the audience size and/or demographiccomposition from the audience). For example, an audience measuremententity (e.g., The Nielsen Company (US), LLC) can calculate ratings for afirst piece of media (e.g., a television program) based on personidentifying information and media identifying information data collectedfrom a plurality of panelist sites. The person identifying informationis used in such examples to look up the demographics of the persons withthe identifying information. Such persons identified have previouslyregistered as panelists by providing their demographics, consenting tohaving their media exposure tracked, and receiving a panelist user nameor identifier. For example, in each panelist site wherein the firstpiece of media is detected in the monitored environment at a first time,media identifying information for the first piece of media is associatedwith person identifying information (e.g., representing a number ofindividuals at the location, a panelist identifier such as a name orother alphanumeric identifier, demographics, etc.) collected for personspresent in the environment at the first time. The results from multiplepanelist sites are combined and/or analyzed to provide ratingsrepresentative of exposure of a larger population of interest.

Example methods and apparatus disclosed herein may be used to count anumber of audience members exposed to media at a location proximate thebase station or counterfeit base station. In particular, by identifyinga number of mobile devices in communication with the base station orcounterfeit base station at a particular period of time and identifyinga media presentation during the same period of time, an audiencemeasurement entity is able to determine exposure metrics for the mediapresentation at the corresponding location.

Mobile technology has become so popular that it is rare for an adultindividual to not own a mobile device and/or carry a mobile device onhis or her person. Moreover, even many minors (e.g., teenagers andyounger) often carry their own cellular phone and/or other wirelessdevice (e.g., an iPod™ or other MP3 player). Accordingly, by identifyinga number of mobile devices in an area, an assumption can be made thatthe same or approximately the same number of people are located in thesame area. In other words, the number of mobile devices registering withor attempting to register with a base station may serve as a proxy forthe number of people in the vicinity of the base station. Examplesdisclosed herein recognize that although a number of mobile devices maybe detected in an area, it does not necessarily mean that an exactlyequivalent number of people is located in the same area. For example,children may not carry mobile devices, and therefore may not berecognized as present. As another example, some individuals carry two ormore mobile devices, and therefore, may be recognized as twoindividuals. Therefore, the detected number of mobile devices incommunication with (and/or who have registered with or attempted toregister with) a base station or counterfeit base station may beadjusted using a probability of the accuracy of the number ofindividuals. For example, if an audience of particular media (e.g., achildren's program) is expected to include many children, theprobability of accuracy may be different (e.g., lower) than for anaudience of second media (e.g., Downton Abbey) expected to includeprimarily adults. Accordingly, demographics, location, etc. for anexpected audience may be used to determine the probability of accuracy.The probability of accuracy may provide a multiplier to adjust theaudience count (up or down) to improve the accuracy of the peoplecounter.

As disclosed herein, a user may be associated with a mobile device bycarrying the mobile device on his or her person and/or by beingregistered to the mobile device. Example mobile devices mayautomatically (e.g., cellular phones) and/or manually (e.g., Wi-Fidevices that request authorization) attempt to register and/orcommunicate with a base station and/or counterfeit base station. Amobile device that automatically communicates with a base station and/orcounterfeit base station requests communication with the base stationand/or counterfeit base station without user interaction. A mobiledevice that manually establishes communication with the base stationand/or counterfeit base station requests user authorization tocommunicate with the base station and/or communicates with the basestation and/or counterfeit base station upon a user request.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example environment 100 including anexample base station and/or counterfeit base station 110. In theillustrated example of FIG. 1, the example base station and/orcounterfeit base station 110 communicates with multiple mobile device(s)120(a), 120(b), 120(c), . . . , 120(n) (generally or collectivelyreferred to herein as “mobile device(s) 120”), wherein (n) representsthe number of mobile devices 120 in communication with the base stationand/or counterfeit base station 110 at a given time. The example basestation 110 may facilitate communication between the mobile device(s)120 and a network 130 (e.g., a local area network (LAN), a wide areanetwork (WAN), the Internet, and/or a cellular phone system).Alternatively, the base station 110 may be an example counterfeit basestation 110 which does not actively connect the mobile device(s) to anetwork. The example network 130 of FIG. 1 facilitates communicationbetween the base station 110 and a central data facility 140. Thenetwork 130 may be implemented by one or more networks. In someexamples, the example base station 110 facilitates communication betweena media identification system 150 and the network 130 and/or the centraldata facility 140. The example media identification system 150 of theillustrated example includes a media detector 152 (e.g., a meter) thatmonitors media output by a media presentation device 154. The mediapresentation device 154 may be one or more of a television, a radio, acomputer, a billboard, etc.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, mobile device users A, B, C, . . ., N are associated with mobile device(s) 120(a), 120(b), 120(c), 120(n),respectively, where (N) is equivalent to a number of users/mobiledevice(s) 120 in communication with the base station and/or counterfeitbase station 110. The example mobile device(s) 120 may be a mobile phone(e.g., a cell phone, smartphone, etc.), mp3 player (e.g., an iPod™), apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet computer (e.g., an iPad™), alaptop computer, etc.

The example base station and/or counterfeit base station 110 of FIG. 1includes an example counter 160. The example counter 160 tracks a number(n) of mobile device(s) 120 in communication with the base station 110.The base station and/or counterfeit base station 110 logs mobile deviceidentification information such as an identifier of the mobile device(s)120 (e.g., an IMEI number), timestamp(s) corresponding to communicationswith the mobile device(s) 120, and/or signal metrics (e.g., signalstrength, signal type, signal direction, etc.). The mobile deviceidentification information is logged by the example counter 160 of thebase station 110 of FIG. 1. In some examples, the counter 160 providesthe logged mobile device identification information to the central datafacility 140 for further processing (e.g., determining a number ofpeople located at a location of the base station 110 at a particulartime, determining the demographic of such persons, etc.), storage, etc.

In examples in which the media identification system 150 is implementedwith the base station and/or counterfeit base station 110, audienceexposure metrics may be developed for a media presentation output by themedia presentation device 154 by identifying the media and determiningthe number (N) of users in the environment 100 and/or the identificationof such users. The number (N) of users can be determined based on thenumber (n) of mobile device(s) 120 in communication with the basestation and/or counterfeit base station 110 or that were incommunication with the base station and/or counterfeit base station 110during the time period the presentation device 154 presented the media(such an example is described in further detail below in connection withFIG. 7 and accompanying disclosure). The demographics of such users canbe determined by using device identification information collected bythe base station and/or counterfeit base station 110 during the requestmessages.

The example media detector 152 of FIG. 1 detects presentation(s) ofmedia (e.g., television programming, radio programming, onlinestreaming, billboard advertisements, Internet media such as web sites,television advertisements, radio advertisements, Internet radio, etc.)in the environment 100 and/or collects identification informationassociated with the detected presentation(s). In some examples, themedia detector 152 of the illustrated example, which may be in wiredand/or wireless communication with the media presentation device 154,identifies a presentation time and a source identification (e.g., atuned channel) of the media. The presentation time and the sourceidentification data may be utilized to identify the corresponding mediaby, for example, cross-referencing a program guide configured, forexample, as a look up table. In such instances, the sourceidentification data may be, for example, the identity of a channel(e.g., obtained by monitoring a tuner of the presentation device 154 oranother device (e.g., a set-top box (STB)) associated with thepresentation device 154) currently being presented on the informationpresentation device 154.

In some examples, the example media detector 152 identifies thepresentation by detecting codes (e.g., watermarks, etc.) embedded withor otherwise conveyed (e.g., broadcast) with media being presented viathe presentation device 154. As used herein, a code is an identifierthat is transmitted with the media for the purpose of identifying and/orfor tuning to (e.g., via a packet identifier (PID) header and/or otherdata used to tune or select packets in a multiplexed stream of packets)the corresponding media. Codes may be carried in the audio, in thevideo, in metadata, in a vertical blanking interval, in a program guide,in content data, and/or in any other portion of the media and/or thesignal carrying the media. In the illustrated example, the mediadetector 152 extracts the codes from the media. In some examples, themedia detector 152 may collect samples of the media and export thesamples to a remote site for detection of the code(s).

Additionally or alternatively, the media detector 152 can collect asignature representative of a portion of the media. As used herein, asignature is a representation of some characteristic of one or moresignal(s) carrying or representing one or more aspects of the media(e.g., a frequency spectrum of an audio signal). Signatures may bethought of as fingerprints of the respective media. Collectedsignature(s) can be compared against a collection of referencesignatures of known media to identify the tuned media. In some examples,the signature(s) are generated by the media detector 152. Additionallyor alternatively, the media detector 152 may collect samples of themedia and export the samples to a remote site for generation of thesignature(s). Collecting codes and/or signatures for the purposes ofaudience measurement have long been known. Such a system was firstdisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,294, which is hereby incorporated byreference.

In some examples, the base station 110 generates a list indicating thenumber of mobile devices 120 that were in communication with the basestation 110 during a period of time (e.g., specific hour, half-hour,quarter-hour, minute, etc.). For example, the list may be generatedchronologically indicating the number (n) of mobile devices 120 thatwere in communication with the base station 110 during the time periodin question. In some examples, the media detector 152 generates a listof programs identified at a particular location. For example, the listmay be generated chronologically indicating the media (e.g., contentand/or advertisements) detected during the time period in question. Byidentifying media that was presented at a particular time, an audiencemeasurement entity may cross-reference the time to the list generated bythe base station and/or counterfeit base station 110 to identify thenumber (n) of mobile devices 120 that were in communication with thebase station 110 at that time, and thus identify an approximate (orexact) number of people (N) exposed to the detected media. In exampleswhere the base station and/or the counterfeit base station 110 recordthe identity of the mobile device(s), the audience measurement entitycan match the media exposure to panelists associated with one or more ofthe devices (n) and, thus, can develop metrics reflecting exposure ofspecific demographic population(s) for the media.

As an example, in FIG. 1, assume the media identification system 150 islocated at a restaurant that displays the Super Bowl on a television,implementing the media presentation device 154. The restaurant of thisexample includes a femtocell, which implements the base station 110, toenable mobile cellular phone(s) 120 to connect to a subscriber network130. The example femtocell 110 of this example incorporates the counter160 to track a number of cell phones 120 in communication or attemptingto communicate with the femtocell 110. Assume that the media detector152 identifies that the Super Bowl was presented on the television from5:30 PM-9:30 PM and that the counter capablilities of the femtocell 110identify that 100 cell phones 120 (i.e., n=100) connected with thefemtocell 110 from 5:30-9:30 PM. Accordingly, an audience measuremententity, upon receipt of the above information, determines that 100people (or approximately 100 people) were exposed to the Super Bowl atthe restaurant between 5:30 PM and 9:30 PM. If any of these people arepanelists of the audience measurement entity, the identification of thecellular phones of the panelists may be used to develop more granulardata (e.g., three Hispanic males between ages 30 and 35 were exposed tothe Super Bowl (and, perhaps more importantly, the advertisementspresented with the Super Bowl) between 6:30 PM an 7:00 PM).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a first example implementation of theexample base station 110 of FIG. 1. The example base station 110 of FIG.2 illustrates an example implementation of the example counter 160 ofFIG. 1, an example mobile device interface 210, an example mobile eventcontroller 220, an example mobile system controller 230, and an examplemobile network interface 240. An example communication bus 202facilitates communication between the mobile interface 210, the mobileevent controller 220, the mobile system controller 230, and/or themobile network interface 240. In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, thebase station 110 is an active base station capable of providingcommunication service (e.g., cellular communication, data communication,etc.) to a network (e.g., the network 130) managed by a service provider(e.g., a cellular service provider, an Internet service provider, etc.).For example, the base station 110 may be a femtocell, a microcell, arouter, etc. associated with the service provider.

In the example of FIG. 2, the example base station 110 communicates withthe mobile device(s) 120 of FIG. 1 via the mobile device interface 210.The example mobile event controller 220 monitors and/or identifiescommunication between the mobile device(s) 120 and the base station 110.The example mobile system controller 230 monitors communication betweenrequesting mobile device(s) 120 and the network 130. In the illustratedexample, the mobile system controller 230 determines whether tofacilitate communication between the mobile device(s) 120 and thenetwork 130. For example, the mobile system controller 230 determineswhether the mobile device(s) 120 seeking to communicate subscribes to aservice provider (e.g., Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc.) that owns, leases,and/or operates the network 130. In the illustrated example, if themobile device 120 is a subscriber to the service provider, then accessto the network 130 is granted (e.g., communication is permitted (e.g.,not blocked)). In such an example, the mobile system controller 230facilitates communication between the authorized mobile device(s) 120and the network 130 via the mobile device interface 210 and the networkinterface 240 using any past, present, and/or future protocols and/ortechniques. The mobile system controller 230 of the illustrated exampleauthorizes and/or determines if the mobile device(s) 120 are authorizedsubscribers and/or users using any appropriate techniques. When themobile system controller 230 determines that the base station 110 is tofacilitate communication between the mobile device(s) 120 and thenetwork 130, the mobile system controller 230 authorizes the mobilenetwork interface 240 to transmit and/or receive communications for theauthorized mobile device(s) 120 to and/or from the network 130.

As mentioned above, the example mobile event controller 220 of FIG. 2monitors communication between the base station 110 and the mobiledevice(s) 120. The example mobile event controller 220 of FIG. 2provides communication information to the counter 160. As disclosedherein, the example communication information may include, for example,a device identifier (device ID) (e.g., an International MobileSubscriber Identity (IMSI), a device telephone number, a device name, adevice address (e.g., internet protocol (IP) address, Media AccessControl (MAC) address, etc.), an International Mobile Station EquipmentIdentity (IMP number etc.), and/or signal metrics (e.g., signalstrength, signal direction (e.g., to/from the mobile station 110)).

The example counter 160 of FIG. 2 includes an example registrationmanager 260, an example counter controller 270, an example timer 280,and an example output device 290. An example communication bus 204facilitates communication between the example registration manager 260,the example counter controller 270, the example timer 280, and/or theexample output device 290. The example registration manager 260 of FIG.2 includes an example logger 262, an example timestamper 264, and anexample registration log 266. The registration manager 260 of theillustrated example monitors communication between the mobile device(s)120 and the base station 110 via the mobile event controller 220. Theexample logger 262 updates the registration log 266 upon identificationof a communication with a mobile device 120, such as the mobile device120(a). The example logger 262 updates the registration log 266 withcommunication information (e.g., a device ID, signal metrics, etc.). Theexample timestamper 264 timestamps the communication log to enableidentification of what device(s) were present at what times.

In some examples, when the event controller 220 determines that acommunication event occurred between a mobile device (e.g., the mobiledevice 120(a)) and the base station 110, the event controller 220extracts communication information from a message of the communicationevent. The example event controller 220 forwards the extractedcommunication information to the registration manager 260. The exampleregistration manager 260 retrieves an identifier from the message (e.g.,an IMSI, a phone number, an IP address, a MAC address, etc.)corresponding to the mobile device (e.g., the mobile device 120(a)) incommunication with the base station 110. If a log entry in theregistration log 266 corresponding to the identified mobile device 120exists in the registration log 266, the communication information in thelog entry corresponding to the mobile device 120 is updated. If a logentry in the registration log 266 corresponding to the identified mobiledevice 120 does not exist, the registration manager 260 creates a logentry in the registration log 266 and stores the communicationinformation (e.g., a request to register, a device identifier, atimestamp, and/or signal strength) in a new log entry of theregistration log 266. An example registration log 266 is described inmore detail below in connection with FIG. 4. In some examples, theregistration log 266 is not organized as explained above, but insteadeach communication generates a new log entry without reference toexisting entries.

The example counter controller 270 of FIG. 2 periodically oraperiodically accesses the collected information to determine a number(n) of mobile device(s) 120 in communication with the base station 110at particular points and/or periods in time In some examples, thecounter controller 270 does not access the collected data but insteadexports the data to an external device on a period or aperiodic basis.In some examples, a system administrator or user may request the basestation 110 to provide communication information currently stored in theregistration log 266 (e.g., a request to indicate the number (n) ofmobile device(s) 120 currently in communication with the base station110). In some such examples, the mobile system controller 230 and/orevent controller 220 respond(s) to such a request by requesting thecounter controller 270 to provide such information. In some suchexamples, the counter controller 270 identifies the amount of open logentries (see FIG. 4) indicating current communication with the mobiledevice(s) 120 and provides data representative of the number (n) ofmobile device(s) 120 to the mobile system controller 230 via the outputdevice 290 and/or the mobile network interface 240. Furthermore, in somesuch examples, the counter controller 270 outputs the data from the logentries of the registration log 266 via the output device 290 to themobile network interface 240. In some examples, the mobile systemcontroller 230 facilitates transmission of the information to arequesting system administrator or user via the mobile device interface210 or the mobile network interface 240.

The registration manager 260 of the illustrated example uses the timer280 to determine when communication between the base station 110 and themobile device(s) 120 associated with device IDs stored in theregistration log 266 has ended (e.g., after a communication timeoutinvolving a threshold period of time passing without communication fromthe mobile device(s) 120, etc.). In some examples, the countercontroller 270 of FIG. 2 instructs the output device 290 to output thecorresponding communication data (e.g., device ID, time period ofcommunication, signal metrics, etc.) from the registration log 266 tothe mobile network interface 240 for transmission to the central datafacility 140 when the timer 280 identifies an end of the communicationsession. In some examples, the counter controller 270 determines thatthe corresponding data is to temporarily remain in the registration log266 (e.g., in the event of a communication failure with the mobilesystem network 130 and/or in systems that periodically or aperiodicallyexport their data (e.g., once per hour, during time of resource usage,etc.).

While an example manner of implementing the base station 110 of FIG. 1is illustrated in FIG. 2, one or more of the elements, processes and/ordevices illustrated in FIG. 2 may be combined, divided, re-arranged,omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way. Further, theexample mobile device interface 210, the example mobile event controller220, the example mobile system controller 230, the example mobilenetwork interface 240, the example counter 160, the example mediadetector 152, the example registration manager 260, the example logger262, the example timestamper 264, the example registration log 266, theexample counter controller 270, the example timer 280, the exampleoutput device 290 and/or, more generally, the example base station 110of FIGS. 1 and/or 2 may be implemented by hardware, software, firmwareand/or any combination of hardware, software and/or firmware. Thus, forexample, any of the example mobile device interface 210, the examplemobile event controller 220, the example mobile system controller 230,the example mobile network interface 240, the example counter 160, theexample media detector 152, the example registration manager 260, theexample logger 262, the example timestamper 264, the exampleregistration log 266, the example counter controller 270, the exampletimer 280, the example output device 290 and/or, more generally, theexample base station 110 could be implemented by one or more circuit(s),programmable processor(s), application specific integrated circuit(s)(ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or fieldprogrammable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)), etc. When reading any of theapparatus or system claims of this patent to cover a purely softwareand/or firmware implementation, at least one of the example mobiledevice interface 210, the example mobile event controller 220, theexample mobile system controller 230, the example mobile networkinterface 240, the example counter 160, the example media detector 152,the example registration manager 260, the example logger 262, theexample timestamper 264, the example registration log 266, the examplecounter controller 270, the example timer 280, the example output device290, and/or the example base station 110 are hereby expressly defined toinclude a tangible computer readable storage device or storage disc suchas a memory, DVD, CD, Blu-ray, etc. storing the software and/orfirmware. Further still, the example base station 110 of FIG. 1 mayinclude one or more elements, processes and/or devices in addition to,or instead of, those illustrated in FIG. 2, and/or may include more thanone of any or all of the illustrated elements, processes and devices.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a second example implementation of theexample base station 110 of FIG. 1. The example base station 110 of FIG.3 includes several components that are similar or identical to thecomponents of the example base station of FIG. 2. Thus, the descriptionof these components will not be repeated here. Instead, like componentswill be identified with like reference numbers to enable the interestedreader to refer to FIG. 2 and its description for a full and completedescription of these like components. The example base station 110 ofFIG. 3 is a counterfeit base station 110 in that it does not actuallyprovide communication services to mobile device(s) 120 but existsinstead for people counting purposes. The counterfeit base station 110of the illustrated example includes an example mobile interface 210, anexample configuration changer 320, and an example counter 160 including:(1) an example registration manager 260 (which may be implemented by theexample registration manager 260 of FIG. 2), (2) an example base stationcontroller 370, (3) an example timer 280, and (4) an example outputdevice 290. An example communication bus 302 facilitates communicationbetween the registration manager 260, the configuration changer 320, thebase station controller 370, the timer 280, and/or the output device290.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 3, the counterfeit base station 110is not an active base station (as opposed to the example base station110 of FIG. 2, which is an active base station). Accordingly, mobiledevice(s) 120 are not capable of receiving services from (e.g.,telephone communication, data communication, etc.) and/or communicatingwith the network 130 of FIG. 1 via the counterfeit base station 110because the counterfeit base station 110 is not associated with aservice provider. However, in the illustrated example of FIG. 3, thecounterfeit base station 110 “acts” like an active base station, and,thus, sends and/or receives signals via a wireless communicationprotocol (e.g., GSM, CDMA, Wi-Fi, etc.).

In the illustrated example, the counterfeit base station 110 of FIG. 3“acts” like a cellular femtocell by transmitting signals over one ormore unlicensed and/or licensed frequencies of the cellularcommunication spectrum. In such an example, the mobile device(s) 120attempt to register with the counterfeit base station 110 because itappears to be an active base station. In some examples, the mobilestations 120 attempt to register with the counterfeit base station 110in order to gain access to the network 130. In some such examples, afteran initial attempt to register with the counterfeit base station 110 togain access to the network 130 proves to be unsuccessful, the mobiledevice(s) 120 may no longer attempt to register with the counterfeitbase station 110 unless configuration settings of the counterfeit basestation 110 are changed. For example, the mobile device(s) 120 may“learn” that registration with the counterfeit base station 110 having afirst configuration will not grant access to the network 130, andtherefore, future attempts to register with the counterfeit base station110 are squelched to avoid waste of resources (e.g., battery life,processing bandwidth, etc.). As explained below, the example counterfeitbase station 110 of FIG. 3 reconfigures itself to “trick” the mobiledevice(s) 120 into attempting to register again using the configurationchanger 320.

In the example of FIG. 3, the example counterfeit base station 110receives registration requests from the mobile device(s) 120 of FIG. 1via the example mobile interface 210. The mobile interface 210 of FIG. 3forwards communication information extracted from the registrationrequests to the registration manager 260. The example registrationmanager 260 of FIG. 3 includes an example logger 262 (which may beimplemented like the example logger 262 of FIG. 2), an exampletimestamper 264 (which may be implemented like the example timestamper264 of FIG. 2), and an example registration log 266 (which may beimplemented like the example registration log 266 of FIG. 2). The logger262 of the registration manager 260 monitors communications between themobile device(s) 120 and the base station 110 and recording informationin the registration log 266 similar to the registration manager 260 asdescribed above in connection with FIG. 2.

The example base station controller 370 of FIG. 3 provides communicationinformation corresponding to the number of mobile device(s) 120 thathave been and/or are currently in communication with the counterfeitbase station 110. The base station controller 370 operates similarly tothe counter controller 270 disclosed above in connection with FIG. 2. Insome examples, the base station controller 370 of FIG. 3 monitors alength of time between reconfigurations of the counterfeit base station110 using the timer 280.

The example base station controller 370 of FIG. 3 instructs theconfiguration changer 320 to alter the configuration of the counterfeitbase station 110 after a threshold period of time. In some examples, theexample base station controller 370 instructs the configuration changer320 to alter the configuration of the counterfeit base station 110 aftera threshold number of received registration request(s) (e.g., 1 request,5 requests, 10 requests, etc.).

The example configuration changer 320 alters the configuration of thecounterfeit base station 110 to “trick” the mobile device(s) 120 intoattempting to register with the counterfeit base station 110 (even ifprevious attempts to register failed). The example configuration changer320 may alter the configuration of the base station 110 by performingthe following: (1) changing an identifier (e.g., a base station ID, aservice set identifier (SSID), etc.) of the counterfeit base station 110(the identifier may be broadcast across a licensed or unlicensedwireless spectrum), (2) changing a signal strength of signals broadcastsby the counterfeit base station 110, and/or (3) initiating or performinga system restart of the counterfeit base station 110. Other techniquesthat may alter the appearance of the counterfeit base station 110relative to the mobile device(s) 120 may be implemented by theconfiguration changer 320.

The example timer 280 and the example output device 290 of FIG. 3 arerespectively implemented similarly to the timer 280 and output device290 disclosed above in connection with FIG. 2. In the example of FIG. 3,the example output device 290 outputs received data from theregistration manager 260 to a data storage device associated with thecounterfeit base station 110 (e.g., the mass storage device 928 of FIG.9), a network (e.g., the network 130 of FIG. 1), and/or a central datafacility (e.g., the central data facility 140 of FIG. 1).

While an example manner of implementing the example counterfeit basestation 110 is illustrated in FIG. 3, one or more of the elements,processes and/or devices illustrated in FIG. 3 may be combined, divided,re-arranged, omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way.Further, the example mobile device interface 210, the exampleregistration manager 260, the example logger 262, the exampletimestamper 264, the example registration log 266, the exampleconfiguration changer 320, the example base station controller 370, theexample timer 280, the example output device 290 and/or, more generally,the example counterfeit base station 110 of FIGS. 1 and/or 3 may beimplemented by hardware, software, firmware and/or any combination ofhardware, software and/or firmware. Thus, for example, any of theexample mobile device interface 210, the example registration manager260, the example logger 262, the example timestamper 264, the exampleregistration log 266, the example configuration changer 320, the examplebase station controller 370, the example timer 280, the example outputdevice 290 and/or, more generally, the example counterfeit base station110 could be implemented by one or more circuit(s), programmableprocessor(s), application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)),programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or field programmable logicdevice(s) (FPLD(s)), etc. When reading any of the apparatus or systemclaims of this patent to cover a purely software and/or firmwareimplementation, at least one of the example mobile device interface 210,the example registration manager 260, the example logger 262, theexample timestamper 264, the example registration log 266, the exampleconfiguration changer 320, the example base station controller 370, theexample timer 280, the example output device 290, and/or the examplecounterfeit base station 110 are hereby expressly defined to include atangible computer readable storage device or storage disc such as amemory, DVD, CD, Blu-ray, etc. storing the software and/or firmware.Further still, the example counterfeit base station 110 of FIG. 3 mayinclude one or more elements, processes and/or devices in addition to,or instead of, those illustrated in FIG. 3, and/or may include more thanone of any or all of the illustrated elements, processes and devices.

FIG. 4 is an example data structure of an example registration log 266that may be implemented by the example base station and/or counterfeitbase station 110 of FIGS. 1, 2, and/or 3. The example registration log266 includes (n) log entries 402 (which may correspond to the number (n)of mobile device(s) 120 in FIG. 1), designated by the rows of theregistration log 266. Each of the example log entries 402 (e.g., eachrow of the example table 266) corresponds to a respective one of themobile device(s) 120 in communication with (or being tracked by) thebase station 110.

Each log entry 402 of FIG. 4 includes a device ID field 404, a time ofinitial registration field 406, a time of most recent communicationfield 408, a signal strength field 410, and a signal direction field412. The example device ID field 404 is used to store a device ID (e.g.,an IMSI, a telephone number, a MAC address, an IP address, etc.)corresponding to the mobile device 120. The example time of initialregistration field 406 is used to store timing information (from thetimestamper 264) corresponding to when the mobile devices initiallyregister with the base station 110. The time of most recentcommunication field 408 is used to store timing information (from thetimestamper 264) corresponding to a most recently determined time thatthe mobile device(s) 120 communicated with the base station 110. Thesignal strength field 410 is used to store information corresponding toa measured signal strength of the communication when either the initialregistration request was made or when the most recent communicationoccurred. The signal direction field 412 is used to store informationcorresponding to an identified communication direction (e.g., to or fromthe mobile) and/or a type of communication (e.g., registration request,acknowledgment message, etc.).

A flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions forimplementing the base station and/or counterfeit base station 110 ofFIGS. 1, 2, and/or 3 is shown in FIG. 5. A flowchart representative ofexample machine readable instructions for implementing the registrationmanager 260 of FIGS. 1, 2, and/or 3 is shown in FIG. 6. In this example,the machine readable instructions comprise a program for execution by aprocessor such as the processor 912 shown in the example processorplatform 900 discussed below in connection with FIG. 9. The program maybe embodied in software stored on a tangible computer readable storagemedium such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, a digitalversatile disk (DVD), a Blu-ray disk, or a memory associated with theprocessor 912, but the entire program and/or parts thereof couldalternatively be executed by a device other than the processor 912and/or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware. Further, although theexample program is described with reference to the flowchartsillustrated in FIGS. 5 and/or 6, many other methods of implementing theexample base station 110 of FIG. 2 and/or the example counterfeit basestation 110 of FIG. 3 may alternatively be used. For example, the orderof execution of the blocks may be changed, and/or some of the blocksdescribed may be changed, eliminated, or combined.

The program 500 of FIG. 5 begins with an initiation of the example basestation or counterfeit base station 110 (e.g., power up, start up, etc.)to facilitate communication with the example mobile device(s) 120 ofFIG. 1. The example program 500 represents is iterative. As such,multiple instances of the program 500 (e.g., multiple threads) may existand/or execute in parallel simultaneously or substantiallysimultaneously.

At block 502 of FIG. 5, the event controller 220 of FIG. 2 and/or themobile interface 210 of FIG. 3 determines whether a request forregistration signal (e.g., a request for registration message) isreceived from a mobile device (e.g., the mobile device 120(a)). If noregistration signal is received by the mobile device interface 210 ofFIGS. 2 and/or 3, control loops back to continue monitoring for receivedregistration signals at block 502. If a registration signal is received,for example, from the mobile device 120(a), control advances to block504. At block 504, the event controller 220 of FIG. 2 and/or the mobileinterface 210 of FIG. 3 extracts and/or forwards mobile devicecommunication information, such as the device ID (e.g., the IMSI, MACaddress, etc.) of the mobile device 120(a) and signal metrics (e.g.,signal strength, signal direction, message type etc.) of thecommunication to the registration manager 260.

At block 506 of FIG. 5, the registration manager 260 updates theregistration log 266 of FIGS. 2, 3 and/or 4 to include the recentcommunication with the mobile device 120(a).

Following the update to the registration log 266 in block 506, at block508, the example mobile system controller 230 of FIG. 2 determineswhether to accept the registration request from the mobile device120(a). In some examples, the mobile system controller 230 accepts theregistration request if the mobile device 120(a) is a subscriber of aservice provider associated with the mobile base station 110. In someexamples, the mobile system controller 230 denies the registrationrequest if the mobile device 120(a) is not a subscriber of an associatedservice provider, if the base station 110 does not have availablebandwidth to facilitate communication to/from the mobile device 120(a),etc. At block 508, if the mobile system controller 230 denies theregistration request from the mobile device 120(a), control advances toblock 510. At block 508, if the mobile system controller 230 accepts theregistration request from the mobile device 120(a), control advances toblock 520.

For the counterfeit base station 110 of FIG. 3, the registration is notaccepted at block 508 because the counterfeit base station 110 does notaccept registration requests. Accordingly, the base station controller370 of FIG. 3 advances control to block 510 (i.e., never branches toblock 520).

At block 510 of FIG. 5, the mobile system controller 230 of FIG. 2and/or the base station controller 370 of FIG. 3 determines whether ornot to continue monitoring communication with the mobile device(s) 120.If the mobile system controller 230 of FIG. 2 and/or the base stationcontroller 370 of FIG. 3 determine(s) that the base station and/or thecounterfeit base station 110 is to no longer monitor communication withthe mobile device(s) 120 (e.g., due to a system failure, due to a systemshutdown, due to a power failure, etc.), the program 500 ends. If themobile system controller 230 of FIG. 2 and/or the base stationcontroller 370 of FIG. 3 determines that the base station and/or thecounterfeit base station 110 is to continue monitoring communicationwith the mobile device(s) 120, control advances to block 512.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 5, at block 512, the mobile systemcontroller 230 of FIG. 2 and/or the configuration changer 320 of FIG. 3determine(s) whether to alter the configuration of the base stationand/or the counterfeit base station 110. In some examples, at block 512the mobile system controller 230 of FIG. 2 and/or the configurationchanger 320 of FIG. 3 alter(s) the base station configuration after athreshold period of time (e.g., 10 minutes, 30 minutes, etc.) has passedwithout communication from one or more of the mobile device(s) 120and/or a registration request from the mobile device(s) 120. In someexamples, for an actual base station 110, the mobile system controller230 of FIG. 2 only alters the base station configuration due to a powerfailure, system shutdown, system failure, a reprogramming event, etc. Ifthe mobile system controller 230 and/or the configuration changer 320determine(s) not to alter the configuration of the base station and/orthe counterfeit base station 110, control returns to block 502. If themobile system controller 230 and/or the configuration changer 320determine(s) to alter the base station configuration, control advancesto block 514.

At block 514, the mobile system controller 230 of FIG. 2 and/or theconfiguration changer 320 of FIG. 3 alter(s) one or moreconfiguration(s) of the base station and/or the counterfeit base station110. In some examples, the mobile system controller 230 and/or theconfiguration changer 320 alter(s) the configuration of the base stationand/or the counterfeit base station 110 by changing an identifier of thebase station and/or the counterfeit base station 110. In some examples,the mobile system controller 230 and/or the configuration changer 320alter(s) the configuration of the base station and/or the counterfeitbase station 110 by changing a radio signal strength of the base stationand/or the counterfeit base station 110. In some examples, the mobilesystem controller 230 and/or the configuration changer 320 alter(s) theconfiguration of the base station and/or the counterfeit base station110 by shutting down and restarting the mobile base station and/or thecounterfeit base station 110 after a threshold period of time and/or byresetting the mobile base station and/or the counterfeit base station110. The mobile system controller 230 and/or the configuration changer320 may alter the configuration of the base station and/or thecounterfeit base station 110 using any appropriate techniques. Suchexample alterations to the configuration(s) of the base station and/orthe counterfeit base station 110 may cause, trigger, trick, manipulateand/or entice the example mobile device(s) 120 of FIG. 1 to send and/orresend registration requests to the base station and/or the counterfeitbase station 110. For example, for the base station 110 of FIG. 2,altering the base station configuration may cause the mobile device(s)120 that is/are not subscribed to the network 130 to attempt toreregister with the base station 110 despite previously experiencing oneor more failed attempts to register with the base station 110.

Returning back to block 520, when the mobile system controller 230 ofFIG. 2 accepts the registration request from the mobile device 120(a)(block 508), the mobile system controller 230 establishes acommunication session with the mobile device 120(a) (e.g., by sending anacknowledgement message) via the mobile device interface 210. Theexample mobile system controller 230 and/or the example mobile deviceinterface 210 may communicate with the example mobile device 120(a)using any appropriate techniques (e.g., GSM, CDMA, Wi-Fi, etc.).

At block 522 of FIG. 5, the event controller 220 of FIG. 2 determineswhether the mobile device 120(a) and the base station 110 havecommunicated. In some examples, at block 522, the event controller 220monitors a length of time from establishing the communication session(at block 520) (e.g., from a time an acknowledgement message was sentfrom the base station 110). In some such examples, if a message is notreceived from the mobile device 120(a) after a threshold period of time,the event controller 220 determines that the communication session withmobile device 120(a) has ended (e.g., the mobile device 120(a) has leftthe area). At block 522, if the event controller 220 determines that amessage (e.g., a response message, a data packet, a registrationrequest, etc.) from the mobile device 120(a) has not been received,control advances to block 510. In some examples, when the eventcontroller 220 determines that no message has been received, the eventcontroller 220 notifies the registration manager 260 that thecommunication session has ended, and the registration manager 260updates the registration log 266 to identify the most recentcommunication direction (to the mobile device 120(a)).

In the illustrated example of FIG. 5, if the event controller 220determines that a message has been received, control advances to block524. At block 524, the example event controller 220 forwards mobiledevice communication information (e.g., device ID, signal metrics, etc.)associated with the message and/or the mobile device 120(a) to theexample registration manager 260 of the example counter 160 of FIG. 2.

At block 526, the example registration manager 260 updates theregistration log 266 to include the received communication informationfrom the event controller 220. In some examples, the example program 600of FIG. 6 may be executed to implement the example update process ofblock 526. Following the update at block 526, control advances to block510 where the mobile system controller 230 determines whether tocontinue monitoring for communication to or from the mobile device(s)120 (block 510). If the base station is not to continue monitoring forcommunication from the mobile device(s) 120, the program 500 ends.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example program 600, which may be used toimplement block 506 and/or block 526 of FIG. 5. The example program 600of FIG. 6 begins when the registration manager 260 receivescommunication information from the event controller 220 of FIG. 2 and/orthe mobile interface 210 of FIG. 3. At block 602, the logger 262determines whether a log entry (see FIG. 4) corresponding to the mobiledevice 120(a) exists in the registration log 266. If the logger 262determines that a log entry corresponding to the mobile device 120(a)does not exist in the log at block 602, control advances to block 604.At block 604 of FIG. 6, the example logger 262 creates a new log entry(e.g., a log entry [0001] of FIG. 4) for the mobile device 120(a) andlogs one or more of the device ID, a time of registration (from thetimestamper 264), a signal strength measurement of the mobile device120(a) (e.g., received from the event controller 220 of FIG. 2 and/orthe mobile interface 210 of FIG. 3), and/or direction/signal type (e.g.,to/from the mobile device 120(a), registration request type,acknowledgment type, etc.) of the communication.

Returning to block 602 of FIG. 6, if the logger 262 determines that alog entry corresponding to the mobile device 120(a) does exist in theregistration log 266 (e.g., because a previous registration request wasreceived from the mobile device 120(a)), control advances to block 606.At block 606, the example logger 262 updates the time information of themost recent communication via the timestamper 264. In some examples, atblock 606, the logger 262 updates the signal metrics in thecorresponding log entry to reflect the signal metrics of the presentcommunication (i.e., the most recent communication rather than theinitial registration request) between the mobile device 120(a) and thebase station and/or counterfeit base station 110.

Following block 604 or block 606 of FIG. 6, at block 608, the logger 262determines whether a communication timeout between the one or more ofthe mobile device(s) 120 has occurred. In the examples disclosed herein,a communication timeout occurs if a threshold period of time (e.g., 15minutes, 1 hour, etc.) passes between communication events (e.g.,registration signals, acknowledgement signals, etc.) occurring betweenthe mobile device(s) 120 and the base station and/or counterfeit basestation 110. Accordingly, at block 608, the logger 262 identifies thetime of the most recent communication for each of the log entries 402corresponding to the mobile device(s) 120. Using information from thetimer 280, the logger 262 calculates a length of time since the lastcommunication (i.e., current time−time of most recentcommunication=length of time since last communication), and if thelength of time has exceeded a threshold period of time (e.g., 20minutes, 30 minutes, etc.), the logger 262 determines that acommunication timeout has occurred. If a communication timeout has notoccurred, the program 600 ends. If the logger 262 determines that acommunication timeout has occurred for one or more of the mobiledevice(s) 120 corresponding to one or more log entries 402 at block 608,control advances to block 610. At block 610, the logger 262 outputs thedata (e.g., the device ID, the time information, signal metrics, etc. ofFIG. 4) from the one or more corresponding log entries 402. In someexamples, the logger 262 outputs data representative of the number ofcommunication timeouts (e.g., data indicating the number of log entries402 that timed out). In some examples, the log entries 402 are clearedto maintain capacity for future log entries.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the mediameter FIG. 1. The example media meter system 700 includes an examplenetwork 130 (which may be implemented by the network 130 of FIG. 1) andan example data collection facility 140 (which may be implemented by thedata collection facility 140 of FIG. 4) and an example media meter 150.The example media meter 150 of FIG. 7 includes an example media detector152 (which may be implemented by the media detector 152 of FIG. 1), anexample timestamper 722, an example memory 724, and an example outputdevice 790. The example timestamper 722 of the illustrated example maybe synchronized with a timestamper (e.g., the timestamper 264 of FIGS. 2and/or 3) of the base station and/or the counterfeit base station 110.

The example media meter system 700 of FIG. 7 enables a user or anaudience measurement entity (e.g. The Nielsen Company) to determine anumber of people at a given location (e.g., a location corresponding tothe base station and/or counterfeit base station 110) that are exposedto media detected by the media detector 152 using the base stationand/or the counterfeit base station 110. In the example of FIG. 7, theexample media detector 152 detects presentation(s) of media in a mediaexposure environment (e.g., a home, a restaurant, etc.) as describedabove with respect to FIG. 1. The media detector 152 provides thedetected media information to the timestamper 722. The timestamper 722timestamps the detected media information and submits the mediainformation to the memory 724.

Accordingly, the timestamped detected media information may be retrievedfrom the memory 724 via the network 130 and processed at the datacollection facility 140. The example data collection facility 140 ofFIG. 7 includes an example audience tracker 750. The audience tracker750 processes the retrieved media information. Based on timestamps ofthe retrieved media information, the audience tracker 750 of FIG. 7 maydetermine a number (n) of mobile device(s) 120, and thus a number ofpeople, that were exposed to the media presentations associated with themedia information. In some examples, the audience tracker 750 adjuststhe determined number (n) based on a probability that the number (n) ofmobile device(s) 120 accurately correspond to the same number of people(N) as detected mobile device(s) 120. For example, using demographicsfor an expected audience, the number (n) may be adjusted (e.g., byadding, by subtracting, by multiplying, by dividing, etc.) by aprobability factor corresponding to the demographics of the expectedaudience. In some examples, the audience tracker 750 determines granularidentity information of the people exposed to the media presentation byaccessing a table of demographic information of users (e.g.,participating panelists) based on identifiers corresponding to themobile device(s) 120.

While an example manner of implementing the media meter 150 isillustrated in FIG. 7, one or more of the elements, processes and/ordevices illustrated in FIG. 7 may be combined, divided, re-arranged,omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way. Further, theexample media detector 152, the example timestamper 722, the examplememory 724, the example output device 790 and/or, more generally, theexample media meter 150 of FIG. 7 may be implemented by hardware,software, firmware and/or any combination of hardware, software and/orfirmware. Thus, for example, any of the example media detector 152, theexample timestamper 722, the example memory 724, the example outputdevice 790 and/or, more generally, the example media meter 150 could beimplemented by one or more circuit(s), programmable processor(s),application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)), programmable logicdevice(s) (PLD(s)) and/or field programmable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)),etc. When reading any of the apparatus or system claims of this patentto cover a purely software and/or firmware implementation, at least oneof the example media detector 152, the example timestamper 722, theexample memory 724, the example output device 790, and/or the examplemedia meter 150 are hereby expressly defined to include a tangiblecomputer readable storage device or storage disc such as a memory, DVD,CD, Blu-ray, etc. storing the software and/or firmware. Further still,the example media meter 150 of FIG. 7 may include one or more elements,processes and/or devices in addition to, or instead of, thoseillustrated in FIG. 7, and/or may include more than one of any or all ofthe illustrated elements, processes and devices.

A flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions forimplementing the media meter 150 of FIG. 7 is shown in FIG. 8. In thisexample, the machine readable instructions comprise a program forexecution by a processor such as the processor 912 shown in the exampleprocessor platform 900 discussed below in connection with FIG. 9. Theprogram may be embodied in software stored on a tangible computerreadable storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, adigital versatile disk (DVD), a Blu-ray disk, or a memory associatedwith the processor 912, but the entire program and/or parts thereofcould alternatively be executed by a device other than the processor 912and/or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware. Further, although theexample program is described with reference to the flowchart illustratedin FIG. 8, many other methods of implementing the example media meter150 may alternatively be used. For example, the order of execution ofthe blocks may be changed, and/or some of the blocks described may bechanged, eliminated, or combined.

The program 800 of FIG. 8 begins with an initiation of the example mediameter 150 of FIG. 7 to detect media. At block 802, the example mediadetector 152 of FIG. 7 detects media being presented (e.g., bycollecting watermarks, codes, generating signatures, etc.). At block804, the example timestamper 722 timestamps media identification datacorresponding to the detected media.

At block 806, the timestamped media is output to the central datafacility for processing. For example, at the central data facility 140,the timestamped media identification information may be used with peopleidentifying information generated and/or received from a registrationmanager 250 of the base station and/or the counterfeit base station 110of FIGS. 2 and/or 3. Accordingly, using the timestamped mediaidentification data and the people meter data from the base stationand/or the counterfeit base station 110 information, an audiencemeasurement for the detected media may be calculated. For example,knowing the time period that media was detected by the media detector152 (at block 802) and the number (n) of mobile devices (e.g., themobile devices 120 of FIG. 1) in communication with the base stationand/or the counterfeit base station 110 during the corresponding timeperiod enables a user or system to calculate and/or estimated size of anaudience for the detected media.

The example processes of FIGS. 5, 6, and/or 8 may be implemented usingcoded instructions (e.g., computer and/or machine readable instructions)stored on a tangible computer readable storage medium such as a harddisk drive, a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM), a compact disk(CD), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a cache, a random-access memory(RAM) and/or any other storage device or storage disk in whichinformation is stored for any duration (e.g., for extended time periods,permanently, for brief instances, for temporarily buffering, and/or forcaching of the information). As used herein, the term tangible computerreadable storage medium is expressly defined to include any type ofcomputer readable storage device and/or storage disk and to excludepropagating signals. As used herein, “tangible computer readable storagemedium” and “tangible machine readable storage medium” are usedinterchangeably. Additionally or alternatively, the example processes ofFIGS. 5, 6, and/or 8 may be implemented using coded instructions (e.g.,computer and/or machine readable instructions) stored on anon-transitory computer and/or machine readable medium such as a harddisk drive, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a compact disk, adigital versatile disk, a cache, a random-access memory and/or any otherstorage device or storage disk in which information is stored for anyduration (e.g., for extended time periods, permanently, for briefinstances, for temporarily buffering, and/or for caching of theinformation). As used herein, the term non-transitory computer readablemedium is expressly defined to include any type of computer readabledevice or disc and to exclude propagating signals. As used herein, whenthe phrase “at least” is used as the transition term in a preamble of aclaim, it is open-ended in the same manner as the term “comprising” isopen ended.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an example processor platform 900 capableof executing the instructions of FIGS. 5 and/or 6 to implement the basestation and/or the counterfeit base station 110 of FIGS. 1, 2, and/or 3,and/or capable of executing the instructions of FIG. 8 to implement themedia meter 150 of FIG. 7. The processor platform 900 can be, forexample, a server, a personal computer, a cellular device, a basestation device, a router, a wireless access point, a femtocell, amicrocell and/or any other type of computing device.

The processor platform 900 of the illustrated example includes aprocessor 912. The processor 912 of the illustrated example is hardware.For example, the processor 912 can be implemented by one or moreintegrated circuits, logic circuits, microprocessors or controllers fromany desired family or manufacturer.

The processor 912 of the illustrated example includes a local memory 913(e.g., a cache). The processor 912 of the illustrated example is incommunication with a main memory including a volatile memory 914 and anon-volatile memory 916 via a bus 918. The volatile memory 914 may beimplemented by Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), DynamicRandom Access Memory (DRAM), RAMBUS Dynamic Random Access Memory (RDRAM)and/or any other type of random access memory device. The non-volatilememory 916 may be implemented by flash memory and/or any other desiredtype of memory device. Access to the main memory 914, 916 is controlledby a memory controller.

The processor platform 900 of the illustrated example also includes aninterface circuit 920. The interface circuit 920 may be implemented byany type of interface standard, such as an Ethernet interface, auniversal serial bus (USB), and/or a PCI express interface.

In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 922 are connectedto the interface circuit 920. The input device(s) 922 permit a user toenter data and commands into the processor 912. The input device(s) canbe implemented by, for example, an audio sensor, a microphone, a camera(still or video), a keyboard, a button, a mouse, a touchscreen, atrack-pad, a trackball, isopoint and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 924 are also connected to the interfacecircuit 920 of the illustrated example. The output devices 1024 can beimplemented, for example, by display devices (e.g., a light emittingdiode (LED), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a liquid crystaldisplay, a cathode ray tube display (CRT), a touchscreen, a tactileoutput device, a light emitting diode (LED), a printer and/or speakers).The interface circuit 920 of the illustrated example, thus, typicallyincludes a graphics driver card.

The interface circuit 920 of the illustrated example also includes acommunication device such as a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver, amodem and/or network interface card to facilitate exchange of data withexternal machines (e.g., computing devices of any kind) via a network926 (e.g., an Ethernet connection, a digital subscriber line (DSL), atelephone line, coaxial cable, a cellular telephone system, etc.).

The processor platform 900 of the illustrated example also includes oneor more mass storage devices 928 for storing software and/or data.Examples of such mass storage devices 928 include floppy disk drives,hard drive disks, compact disk drives, Blu-ray disk drives, RAIDsystems, and digital versatile disk (DVD) drives.

The coded instructions 932 of FIGS. 5, 6, and/or 8 may be stored in themass storage device 928, in the volatile memory 914, in the non-volatilememory 916, and/or on a removable tangible computer readable storagemedium such as a CD or DVD.

Example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture have beendisclosed to identify a number of people at a location (and/or exposedto a media presentation) based on a number of mobile devices incommunication with a base station (e.g., a femtocell, a microcell, arouter, etc.) or a counterfeit base station. The identified number ofpeople may be used in conjunction with a media detector for audiencemeasurement of a media presentation. Thus, above examples may be used toeffectively convert a base station for cellular and/or wirelesscommunication into a people meter. Although many of the above examplesrelate to audience measurement, other uses and/or applications of thedisclosed technology are possible. For example, the above disclosedtechnique may be useful for crowd control by identifying a number ofpersons in an area, for police or other security work by identifyingspecific individuals in an area, etc.

Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacturehave been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is notlimited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods,apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope ofthe claims of this patent.

What is claimed is:
 1. A base station comprising: a configurationchanger to change a configuration setting of the base station to causemobile devices to register with the base station; a registration managerto respond to registration requests received from the mobile devicesafter the configuration setting is changed by storing deviceidentification information for the corresponding mobile devices; and acounter controller to identify a number of the mobile devices at alocation of the base station based on the stored device identificationinformation.
 2. The base station of claim 1, wherein the configurationsetting includes an identifier of the base station.
 3. The base stationof claim 1, wherein the base station does not provide the mobile deviceswith connectivity to a network.
 4. The base station of claim 1, whereinafter the configuration setting is changed, the configuration changer isfurther to: determine whether a threshold amount of time has elapsedwithout communication from a first one of the mobile devices that waspreviously registered with the base station; and in response todetermining the threshold amount of time has elapsed, change theconfiguration setting of the base station again.
 5. The base station ofclaim 1, wherein after the configuration setting is changed, theconfiguration changer is further to: determine whether a thresholdamount of time has elapsed without receipt of any further registrationrequests; and in response to determining the threshold amount of timehas elapsed, change the configuration setting of the base station again.6. The base station of claim 1, wherein the registration requestsinclude re-registration requests from mobile devices that had previouslysent registration requests to the base station and registration requestsfrom mobile devices that had not previously sent registration requeststo the base station.
 7. A base station comprising: means for changing aconfiguration setting of the base station to cause mobile devices tore-register with the base station; means for responding to registrationrequests received from the mobile devices after the configurationsetting is changed by storing device identification information for thecorresponding mobile devices; and means for identifying a number of themobile devices at a location of the base station based on the storeddevice identification information.
 8. The base station of claim 7,wherein the configuration setting includes an identifier of the basestation.
 9. The base station of claim 7, wherein the base station doesnot provide the mobile devices with connectivity to a network.
 10. Thebase station of claim 7, wherein after the configuration setting ischanged, the means for changing the configuration setting is further to:determine whether a threshold amount of time has elapsed withoutcommunication from a first one of the mobile devices that was previouslyregistered with the base station; and in response to determining thethreshold amount of time has elapsed, change the configuration settingof the base station again.
 11. The base station of claim 7, whereinafter the configuration setting is changed, the means for changing theconfiguration setting is further to: determine whether a thresholdamount of time has elapsed without receipt of any further registrationrequests; and in response to determining the threshold amount of timehas elapsed, change the configuration setting of the base station again.12. A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising instructionsthat, when executed, cause a processor to at least: change aconfiguration setting of a base station to cause mobile devices toregister with the base station; respond to registration requestsreceived from the mobile devices after the configuration setting ischanged by storing device identification information for thecorresponding mobile devices; and identify a number of the mobiledevices at a location of the base station based on the stored deviceidentification information.
 13. The tangible machine readable storagemedium of claim 12, wherein the configuration setting includes anidentifier of the base station.
 14. The tangible machine readablestorage medium of claim 12, wherein base station does not provide themobile devices with connectivity to a network.
 15. The tangible machinereadable storage medium of claim 12, wherein after the configurationsetting is changed, the instructions, when executed, further cause theprocessor to: determine whether a threshold amount of time has elapsedwithout communication from a first one of the mobile devices that waspreviously registered with the base station; and in response todetermining the threshold amount of time has elapsed, change theconfiguration setting of the base station again.
 16. The tangiblemachine readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein after theconfiguration setting is changed, the instructions, when executed,further cause the processor to: determine whether a threshold amount oftime has elapsed without receipt of any further registration requests;and in response to determining the threshold amount of time has elapsed,change the configuration setting of the base station again.
 17. Thetangible machine readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein theinstructions, when executed, further cause the processor to: adjust thenumber of mobile devices at the location to correspond to a number ofpersons at the location based on a probability of accuracy.
 18. Thetangible machine readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein theprobability of accuracy is a probability that the number of personsexposed to the media is the same as the number of mobile devicesidentified at the location.
 19. The tangible machine readable storagemedium of claim 17, wherein the probability of accuracy is based on atleast one of demographics of an expected audience for the media, thelocation, and a timestamp.
 20. The tangible machine readable storagemedium of claim 17, wherein the probability of accuracy 1) increases thenumber of persons when the demographics of the expected audienceincludes children, 2) reduces the number of persons when the locationexcludes children, and 3) reduces the number of persons when a timestampis during the evening.